1. Technical Field
The present technology relates to a pneumatic tire, and particularly relates to a pneumatic tire whereby ease of manufacture can be enhanced while maintaining braking performance on ice.
2. Related Art
Pneumatic tires such as studless tires and the like have block patterns wherein a plurality of sipes is disposed for the purpose of enhancing braking performance on ice. While increasing the number of sipes leads to an increase in edge components of the sipes, it also leads to a decrease in block rigidity. Generally, block rigidity must be properly ensured because it affects braking performance on ice.
Conventional pneumatic tires that address this need are described in Japanese Patent No. 3894743 and Japanese Patent No. 4316452. Sipes of conventional pneumatic tires include what are known as “three-dimensional sipes”, and, when viewed as a cross-section from a direction perpendicular to a sipe length direction, a wall face thereof has a form that is bent in a tire circumferential direction (sipe width direction).
However, with conventional pneumatic tires, it is necessary to provide an edge of a sipe molding die with a three-dimensional form in order to form the three-dimensional sipes. Producing a siping blade that provides the edge form described above is not generally easy. Therefore, there is a demand to simplify siping blade production and enhance the ease of manufacture of the tire.